SC QUALITY GUILDStandardized work combination sheet
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Enter each element of the operator's routine with its manual, walk and machine time. The chart lays them out against takt, and the checks show whether the station keeps pace and where people or machines wait.
ON THE EXAM · CQE V.D.6, V.D.7, CSSBB VII.B.1, CSQP IV.A.3, CMDA V.B.3 · FREE · NOTHING YOU TYPE LEAVES YOUR BROWSER
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What the combination sheet shows
Standardized work is the current best way to do a job, written down: the sequence of elements, the time each takes, and the stock needed to keep it flowing. The combination sheet (the standardized work combination table) is the part that shows how a person's work and the machines' work fit together over one cycle. It is the tool for designing work in a cell where one operator runs several machines.
The three kinds of time
- Manual: hands-on time, including loading, unloading and starting a machine.
- Walk: moving to the next element. The last row's walk is the walk back to the start.
- Machine: automatic time after the machine is started, while the operator moves on.
The operator's cycle is the sum of manual and walk time. Machine time runs in parallel with the rest of the routine.
Takt and cycle time
Takt time = available time ÷ customer demand. With 440 available minutes and a demand of 330 units a shift, takt is 80 seconds: the station must finish one unit every 80 seconds. Takt comes from the customer; it is not a measure of the process. The value stream map calculates it for the whole family.
A machine must finish its run before the operator comes back to it, one cycle later. If a machine's load time plus run time is longer than the operator's cycle, the operator waits at that machine. The station's cycle time is therefore the longer of the operator's cycle and the longest machine cycle. That is the number to compare with takt.
Reading the chart
- Cycle over takt: the station cannot keep up. Rebalance work to a neighbor, cut walking, or reduce the machine time.
- Cycle well under takt: the operator has spare time every cycle. That is capacity to give the operator more machines or elements.
- Operator waiting for a machine is the waste to remove first. A machine that has finished and waits for the operator is normal in a lean cell; people are the scarcer resource.
- A long walk share points to the layout. Moving machines closer, often into a U shape, gives the time back. A spaghetti diagram shows the path.
Time each element several times and use the lowest repeatable time, not an average that includes interruptions. The interruptions are problems to solve, not part of the standard.
On the exam
Standardized work and takt time are lean tools in the CQE Body of Knowledge (V.D.6 and V.D.7). The CSSBB includes standard work under waste elimination (VII.B.1), the CSQP lists standardized work and takt time (IV.A.3), and the CMDA names standard operations among the lean tools (V.B.3). Expect to calculate takt time, compare cycle time with takt, and say what to do when a station is over takt.